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A matryoshka doll, or babushka doll is a Russian nesting doll (Russian: Матрёшка) which is a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other. The first Russian nested doll set was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin from a design by Sergey Malyutin, who was a folk crafts painter at Abramtsevo. Traditionally the outer layer is a woman, dressed in a sarafan, a long and shapeless traditional Russian peasant jumper dress. The figures inside may be of either gender; the smallest, innermost doll is typically a baby lathed from a single piece of wood

I first saw a set of matryoshka dolls in my friend Olwyn's house in New Zealand. When I saw this set in a souvenir shop in Singapore, I felt very emotional. Olwyn had been very good to me. I bought this and found it was made in China, not in Russia.

I brought this to school, and one day, my Somalian student Ahmed said he had a set and would I buy it for $5. I told him to make sure his mum was ok about it. I didn't want to rip him off. So he brought it to school, and he was very happy to have $5. His was a set of Saudi Arabian dolls, I didn't exactly want a set of Saudi Arabian Russian dolls, but he was disappointed if I didn't buy them. I also hope his mum didn't pay too much for them.

When I took the photo, I didn't have time to open up the nest of the Russian dolls. You will have to imagine what they are like. They are all the same.